Swift Current's Maffenbeier loves to race

While other three-year-old kids were still getting comfortable on their own two feet, Maffenbeier was full speed ahead on his own little Yamaha PW50 motorcycle.

The best part? No training wheels.

“That was actually kind of the cool thing about it,” the Swift Current-born rider says with a laugh. “I remember I could ride a bike before my sister, who’s three years older than me.”

Maffenbeier eventually began competing, but says he enjoyed spending time at the track with his family and friends more than actually racing. That changed when he was a teenager, and he hasn’t looked back.

“I played hockey in the wintertime and I had some sour experiences from a few hockey coaches,” he says. “It wasn’t the best experience for me and, when I started racing in the summer, sometimes I had those negative thoughts about myself and how I performed on the track.

“Once I got over that hump and I realized that we were just doing it for fun — and that racing was an enjoyable thing to do — then I really fell in love with it.”

After more than two decades of happily riding, the 25-year-old Maffenbeier has earned his fair share of hardware and credentials along the way.

Last year he helped the Canadian national team earn one of its all-time best finishes (10th) at the prestigious Motocross des Nations event in Italy and also placed second on the Canadian motocross circuit.

Last weekend, he finished first overall at a series event in Calgary. But with his triumphs and credentials have come injuries.

“Obviously when you’re on a 250-pound motorcycle, trying to go as fast as you can on multiple different kinds of soils, almost always during a race someone is going to crash, and sometimes it’s going to be you.”

Maffenbeier is hoping to avoid that fate this week when he competes in front of family and friends at the Rockstar Energy Drink motocross nationals series in Regina. The event runs Saturday and Sunday at the Moto Valley Raceway.

Maffenbeier admits that the money he has earned through racing, when divided by the hours he has invested in perfecting his craft, results in a less-than-stellar hourly wage.

But that doesn’t seem to matter to him too much.

“This is a very addicting sport,” he says. “I won on the weekend, and I can’t find that feeling anywhere else, you know what I mean? I love the adrenaline rush and the level of joy that I get from winning a race is almost indescribable.”

This weekend’s action runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.

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